Obama's SOTU challenge to GOP

It sounded conciliatory, even friendly, brimming with the outward trappings of a shift to the center, but President Barack Obama’s 2011 State of the Union speech was, at its core, an unmistakably partisan challenge to congressional Republicans.

Obama, facing a chamber full of Democrats and Republicans mingling together in a show of bipartisan comity, began by telling the new GOP majority in the House that “we will move forward together or not at all.”

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There were concessions aplenty as well — free-trade deals, a simplification of the corporate tax code, an earmark ban he once ridiculed and a push to get colleges to accept the ROTC on their campuses. Plus, he mostly avoided mentioning a host of issues that would offend them — comprehensive climate change legislation and gun control, to name two.

Yet for all the surface civility, Obama wants to pick a fight, or at least draw a stark contrast, between his jobs-centric philosophy and the GOP’s determination to cut government first and ask questions later. (See: State of the Union slideshow)

That’s why he proposed an ambitious slate of new spending initiatives — he calls them “investments” — setting up an extraordinary mini-campaign this spring in which Obama and the GOP will put their cases before the American people. (See: So much for civility)

“The president believes the American people care more about creating jobs and the investment it takes to prepare us to compete and win in the global economy,” said former Obama adviser Neera Tanden, chief operating officer for the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank with close ties to the White House.

“The Republicans basically think the election was a mandate just to slash — even in areas like education that are tied to jobs. He’s betting the Republicans are wrong.”

Since the midterm elections, Obama has signaled his willingness to deal with the deficit but has warned against excessive cuts. He did not pay his respects to the issue until he was 35 minutes into his hourlong speech, a conventional laundry-list address that featured little of the passion or poignancy of his memorial speech in Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago. (See: Giffords was target of shooter; accomplice suspected)

“I recognize that some in this chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I’m willing to eliminate what we can honestly afford to do without. But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable,” said Obama, staking out an opening position in what is likely to be an epic budget battle this spring.